Book review | Bad Monkey: Crime tale faithful to faults of Florida

Carl Hiaasen thrillers come with a guarantee: humor that capitalizes on absurd behavior and Florida quirkiness, social commentary that might rival that of Jonathan Swift and a deep concern for the environment — all wrapped in a solid plot.

Hiaasen delivers much more in Bad Monkey, his 13th crime novel.

However over-the-top his storytelling becomes, his tales are grounded in reality — the Florida type of reality in which scams and schemes exist on every corner.

Former Miami police officer and about-to-be-former Monroe County Deputy Sheriff Andrew Yancy hasn’t won many friends among his law-enforcement colleagues.He lost his Miami job because of his failed attempts to nab a crooked cop who ran a Crime Stoppers scheme.In Key West, he is forced onto “roach patrol” — or, as it is more politely described, restaurant-inspection duty — because a deputy isn’t supposed to assault his girlfriend’s husband with a vacuum cleaner.

As a good officer, though, Andrew can’t turn off his instincts when he suspects something fishy about a human arm that turns up on the end of a tourist’s fishing line.The arm, which seems to have been part of a shark’s lunch, belongs to Nick Stripling, an entrepreneur in his 40s who made a fortune selling electric scooters to senior citizens. And the man’s wife (or his widow?) just doesn’t ring true to Andrew.

Although Andrew’s job — seeing what goes on in Key West kitchens — is making him physically ill, he’s also energized by his investigation into the arm and what happened to the rest of the man. If he solves the crime, if there is a crime, maybe he will get his job back. With the help of a lovely Miami medical examiner, Andrew follows a trail that takes him from the Keys to the Bahamas.

Bad Monkey is the closest Hiaasen comes to a police procedural, but, true to form, it also is a look at the ludicrous ways of Florida, such as the bait-and-switch in which a dead sailfish is surreptitiously placed on a tourist’s line. Andrew delights in sending obnoxious people to filthy restaurants, and he has a running battle on how to sabotage the sale of the mega-mansion next door that has spoiled his view of the sunsets and keeps the little Key deer away. He finds that a bit of well-placed roadkill does wonders; so does a bunch of junk made to look like Santeria.

And there is indeed a bad monkey in Bad Monkey: a vile creature, Driggs, who loves to fling his waste and might have had a role in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Driggs has nothing in common with the lovable Lab in Hiaasen’s Sick Puppy, but the monkey has his moment in the spotlight.